Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[www0935]

Please help me with the following question.

The right gift, given in the right way, can go a long way to ______ new friendships.
(A) build (B) cement (C) interacting (D) strengthening

The answer is (D), but how about (A) or (B)?
Is the "to" in the phrase "go a long way to" a preposition or an infinitive?

Thanks for your help.

[Eric Thompson]

Dear www0935: The 'to' that you are talking about is a preposition. That's because 'strengthening' is a gerund noun, and prepositions go before nouns. Furthermore, 'toward' could be used instead of 'to' in this case, and 'toward' is definitely not part of infinitives. ok? -- Eric